And in this guise they stood
before the Queen; and when she looked on the saint, the tears
fell from her eyes like rain, not for grief for her son, nor for
death, but that for their sake the pure should be made impure and
the glory of the Brahman-hood be defiled. And she fell at the old
man's feet and laid her head on the ground before him.
"Rise, daughter!" he said, "and take comfort! Are not the eyes of
the Gods clear that they should distinguish? - and this day we
stand before the God of Gods. Have not the Great Ones said, `That
which causes life causes also decay and death'? Therefore we who
go and you who stay are alike a part of the Divine. Embrace now
your child and bless him, for we depart. And it is on account of
the sacrifice of the Twelve that he is saved alive."
So, controlling her tears, she rose, and clasping the child to
her bosom, she bade him be of good cheer since he went with the
Gods. And that great saint took his hand from hers, and for the
first time in the life of the Queen he raised his aged eyes to
her face, and she gazed at him; but what she read, even the
ascetic Visravas, who saw all by the power of his yoga, could not
tell, for it was beyond speech.
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